Personal data breach claims for emotional distress in the Singapore Court of Appeal

Abstract

This note explores the treatment of personal data breaches, focusing on claims for emotional distress. When seeking compensation for emotional distress, there exists a tension in safeguarding against abuses of private information, on the one hand, and the reluctance of the judiciary to entertain claims related to non-material injuries, on the other hand: see Citron and Solove (2022) B.U.L. Rev. 793. Many instances of this problem stem from the interpretation of data protection statutes.